June 7, 2011

Replaying Anthony Weiner when he was in full liar mode. This interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl is now hilarious. Don't just read it. Play the clip to experience the intensity of the pressure Weiner brazenly applies to Karl. He tries to shame Karl: you did "zero research," you don't "understand how social networks work," you're impugning the ordinary people who follow me, you're making "a pretty charged supposition," "Do you really think that’s fair question? I mean do you?," I am "a person who’s married"...

... I want you to take it seriously that when you ask a question like that it is charged with implication and it is simply not fair. It is not fair to me. It’s not fair to my family. It’s not fair to that poor girl who’s now been besieged because of the implication.... I would urge you. I would urge you my friend to refocus on what you think the actual issue is. This is a Twitter hoax, a prank that was done. I was the victim of this. This poor girl was the victim of this.

... This poor girl! I was the victim! Unfair! Unfair! What a terrible journalist you are! Shame!

Every would-be journalist should study this clip. This is what lying looks like. This is how a powerful, ambitious individual endeavors to push you back.

What a stupid schmuck. Aside from the sheer hubris and grandiosity that led Weiner to think this would never be discovered--or, if discovered, that it could simply be denied--what's up with sending photos of your erect penis to woman over the internet? I just don't even get the impulse to do that or to think it somehow appealing to the women on the, uh, receiving end.

(But then, I remain unable to understand why some men name their penises. What?)

Someone once described Clinton as "an unusually good liar." I'd say he has some company.

The moral indignation Weiner showed was really something. You could see on the reporter's face, too, that he, the reporter, was feeling attacked. He came back with good questions, but he delivered them a bit weakly and defensively. That is the power of moral cocksureness, even when it is total bullshit.

A protean capacity and propensity to lie glibly and with fluency is the essential facility necessary to anyone seeking elected office. (As I.F. Stone famously said, "All governments lie." Without men and women with no compunction about lying, this absolute truth about governments would...not be.)

I'll agree with Cook on this: politicians have to become accustomed to spin and even outright lies in order to survive. To be able to stand in front of the entire nation and say outright, obvious falsehoods is part of the job description. Now, that doesn't mean the politician in question hasn't convinced himself he (or she) isn't lying. In fact, I think that's the real problem with politicians these days (and Obama first-and-foremost)--they're so good at lying that they begin to believe their own bullshit.

The more truth he tells, the more desperate the left is to assure us he's a liar.

This is an amazingly dishonest congressman. His lying goes way beyond anything I've ever seen before.

And now we're being told to 'forget it'. In all honestly, I don't care much about the sex scandal unless Weiner was after underage children. There's plenty of reason to suspect he was.

Just pay attention to how ferociously he fights to avoid answering a question about the young women. Remember those minors whose parents both 'wrote' identical letters praising Weiner and saying 'shame on you for asking about our underage daughters! Why did Weiner's lawyers go out there and coerce such letters (and don't tell me they didn't)?

Sadly, we all know. Weiner was probably sexting 16 year olds with lewd photos. And he was doing it with taxpayer equipment, services, and from the people's office.

The reason Weiner came clean was because he was forced to. He was forced to because there is something worse out there he's trying to cover up.

In other words, those assuming he has come clean are being irrational. He 'came clean' specifically in order to avoid coming clean.

And that's why, you see, we must make Government omnipresent, omnipotent, and enormous.

Yes, that's the problem with Kookie's logic. But, the answer to his total blindness is contained in his earlier post:

Aside from the sheer hubris and grandiosity that led Weiner to think this would never be discovered--or, if discovered, that it could simply be denied--what's up with sending photos of your erect penis to woman over the internet?

The dumb bastard, that is Kookie, doesn't know that he's a sinner. He doesn't realize that he's only a moment away from doing the same damned thing Weiner did... or something equally stupid.

BTW, if my reading of his body language is right, Whining Weiner was lying at the very end of the news conference when he described his wife's reaction and then lied when he said that the marriage is okay, not on the rocks, whatever.

You could see him twitch and stutter when he said the very last sentence.

He seems to be a born liar who cons his way into being believed by occasionally confiding some deep inner secret which is believable.

The voters of the New York 9th CD get what they deserve. I worked politics back in the day in Steve Solarz's old district which is now part of Weiner's and the Midwood neighborhood was teeming with psychopathic liars. Li'l Anthony fits right in, evidently.

Also, it must be said that Jonathan Karl was being browbeaten so badly because of his hilarious past habit of giving Dems a pass on Q&As and then suddenly sticking to his guns when the Wiener-man committed several absurdly contradictory self-incriminations.

The lyin POS actually expected Karl, who's an Obama supporter and who always interrogates Republicans with little mercy, to cut him some slack and not ask why he wouldn't ask for an official investigation [where AW the A-Hole would have to lie under oath or obstruct justice or out himself]. And the absurd answer to why it wasn't certain that that picture was not of him revealed AW's lying attempts to buffalo Karl into submission were failing. That's when Li'l Anthony lost his temper, tsk, tsk, tsk.

You don't need to be the Mentalist to know when someone's selling you a bill of goods, but if you're a lamestream MSM loser, you overlook every sign that the Dems are a bunch of sleazy moronic liars.

P.S. When I worked in Solarz's district back in the day, I was a Dem Party operative. Thank God I grew up.

I would urge you my friend to refocus on what you think the actual issue is. This is a Twitter hoax, a prank that was done. I was the victim of this. This poor girl was the victim of this. And to somehow draw a larger line to people who have done nothing wrong, these people that I follow or follow me have done nothing wrong and the implication should not be left with that.

Who was implying that the people who follow him had done anything wrong?

While most of them may be Democrats that only goes so far. Most journalists probably do not care for Anthony Weiner any more. I suspect it is open season for him now. He made some of them look like fools and they are not going to forget.

While I think he could ride this out politically, the Democrat party may want to jetison him now. He is a distraction. He is not some urban minority politican in a corruption scandal--he is was a party attack dog. Nancy is considering putting him down.

AA: Every would-be journalist should study this clip. This is what lying looks like. This is how a powerful, ambitious individual endeavors to push you back.

Do some perceptual learning. Develop an eye and an ear for lying.

Seriously? No Prof, your post is an opportunity for perceptual learning. One can develop an eye for "self honesty". Do you really think the problem the press had in this case...or most cases...is a lack of cognizance that Weiner was lying? The MSM and left don't want the "truth", they want to move the story in their desired direction. They are moved to the truth, like Weiner, when and only when there is no other option. And then, like Weiner, it is still varnished, to make the best of a bad situation.

Remember, the #1 motivation for journalism students is to "change the world!". And the world they want requires avoiding the truth.

It worked on the Kos kids. Here is an entry from about 15 minutes before the announcement was scheduled. Still cannot understand how the ycan be so gullible:

Do you really think a sitting Congressman would send out a link to a picture like this on Twitter?

There's no "maybe" about this. The accusation is ludicrous on its face.

People who want to "investigate the evidence" would be well-advised to have a slight understanding of Bayesian statistics. The probability that a sitting Congressman would post to Twitter a link to a photo that would destroy his career is...zero. It's not small, it's zero.

He's saying that one reason we have corrupt poli's like Edwards and Wiener is because the electorate is corrupt. People vote Democrat because they want hand outs. SO of course they don't care about their leader's moral fiber, their interest is selfish.

Case in point: Weiner won't be booted by Dems over ethics, he'll be booted when he can no longer bring home the goodies.

In the end, his lying is why I believe he should resign. If, as he claims, the only problem caused by his "sexting" is one of personal embarrassment, why was he willing to go to such lengths to cover it up something that "doesn't matter"? Wouldn't he go to even greater lengths on a subject that "really matters"? I think so.

He's proven himself to be a liar. He's proven to be willing to allow others to be falsely accused. He's proven to misuse his staff -- by lying to them and engaging them in defending and spreading his lies. Such a complete lack of honesty and personal integrity should disqualify one from serving in Congress. They'd disqualify someone from working in my office.

I don't think democrat media people care if they are lied to by democrats. I think they expect it, don't care about it, and encourage the lies. After all, democats in the media are there to help the democrats with those lies.

And now we're being told to 'forget it'. In all honestly, I don't care much about the sex scandal unless Weiner was after underage children. There's plenty of reason to suspect he was.

Even if they weren’t underage, would it also make a difference if he was using his work computer and telephone provided by and paid for by his employer (i.e. the federal taxpayer)? That alone would probably get most people in both the private and public sector (remember the former SEC employees who got fired last year?) fired from work.

I think that the following needs to happen:

1) He needs to be suspended from all of his committee and sub-committee assignments including the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security unless and until he has been cleared of not being compromised and being a security risk.

2) His work computer needs to be seized to determine what if any inappropriate content was sent (including to minors). If he’s sincere about cooperating, he should turn over his personal computer and any other devices to the Sergeant at Arms but at a minimum, the one(s) provided by the taxpayer should be taken and examined.

3) His office telephone records need to be examined to see what if any calls were sent to any of the women (or others) to whom he sent inappropriate content.

4) If it looks like Weiner’s violated any laws, Speaker Beohner needs to refer this to the Justice Department for prosecution.

I think the girl in Seattle sent Weiner something. His response was what got exposed, so to speak. I think it was intended to be a compliment about what she sent him. Sort of like Lewinsky’s flashing her thong at Clinton.

Weiner actually acted the opposite of a normal liar. Much of his body language, and reaction to the questions are exactly opposite of the conventional wisdom and information out there about lying.

I suspect he's read up on it and has practiced his art. He's an exceptional liar not an ordinary one. I believe this is nearly a requirement for a political career. Not all politician are liars, but many are very good at it after doing for a lifetime.